It was only a few metro stops over to Sagrada Familia for our 9:45 AM appointment. We'd hoped that it wouldn't be very crowded that early in the morning (this is not an early-morning culture), and it was not (compared to what it was like during our bike tour, anyway).
As I mentioned previously, this is one of the places I remember very well from my first visit. I'm pleased to announce that they've made great progress in the last 24 years. These days, it's even a real church, approved by the pope and everything.
They offer a smartphone app with an audioguide, which was nice because we can use our decent headphones/earbuds instead of the communal petri dish of hardware that is offered at other attractions.
I was shocked and amused to see how many people were trying to share a pair of (wired) earbuds as they wandered around the basilica, tethered together, as if participating in a challenge on a game show.
This ceiling is nearly 150' above the floor. We've seen quite a few cathedrals in our travels, and I've seen this ceiling before (although maybe not fully built?), but it's quite impressive. The stained-glass windows, alone, might be worth the trip.
We opted not to wait in line for the elevator to go up to one of the towers, as there are ~500 stairs to get back down and we had other plans for a view, later today. I did have fond memories of doing that as a teenager, though.
After the self-guided tour, we visited the museum on the lower level of the basilica, where the workshop now uses 3D-printed models for construction/restoration.
We spent about 90 minutes at the basilica, total. The rest of our day was aimed in the other direction, from the hotel, so we took the metro back there, grabbed some light sandwiches for lunch, and retreated to the courtyard/garden (of bonsai trees) to check into our evening flight.
What with Montjuïc being between us and the airport, we decided that it was a good place to spend a few hours before flying out for the night. There are a few different ways to get to the top; we opted to take the funicular from El Poble-sec, because funiculars are amazing. Also it's part of the transit system, therefore covered by our transit passes.
This sloped train must be in hot demand during the high season, because there's a very long waiting area/hallway adorned with "estimated wait time" demarcations/colors, but today we just strolled right in and boarded the nearly-empty car at the front.
The top of the funicular isn't quite all the way at the top of the Jewish Mountain (where the castle is). To get to the very top, one would have to take a cable car (at a tourism-inflated price), walk about a mile (and 300 feet of elevation) uphill, or figure out a bus schedule.
We didn't intend to spend the rest of the day walking around up there, and Sabrina pointed out that we just toured a castle literally yesterday, so we decided that the views from halfway up were just fine.
The entire area was developed for the 1992 Olympics, which explains why one of the best views of the city is from the top of the bleachers overlooking several large pools.
We walked along the footpath toward the Mirador de Miramar observatory, stopping to enjoy the view along the way.
Side note: There aren't very many unusual buildings in the Barcelona skyline; there's Sagrada Familia, obviously, and that weird glass wing down by the harbor (the W hotel). I was curious about the giant, phallic glass tower that we kept seeing from every viewpoint (between the smokestacks on the right, below); I looked it up, and it's the Torre Glòries.
There's another cable car from the port, down by Barceloneta beach. It looked very slow, but I imagine the views are excellent. We assumed this is for cruise passengers?
It was mercifully a few degrees cooler up there, but the sun was still brutal. Thankfully, we had anticipated this and were fully hatted today.
On the walk back to the funicular station area, we detoured through the Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera (botanical gardens), which was heavily cactus-focused. Given the near absence of rain here for the past several years, this seemed like a solid choice.
As we had been discussing the temperature/weather, I decided to check on the Fall situation back home.
We still had plenty of time before we needed to zip over to the airport, so instead of taking the funicular back down, we walked the long way, toward Plaça d'Espanya.
The first stop along the way was a stroll through the gardens next to the Miró museum.
In the distance, we could already see the top of the impressive Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya poking through the trees.
The views from the walking paths in that garden were also spectacular.
We stopped briefly in front of the MNAC, to take in the view and enjoy a moment of shade, before beginning the descent down to the plaza.
In the Before Times, when it rained here, this would have been a photo of the Magic Fountain. Instead, you can use your imagination, or enjoy the photos in the Wikipedia article.
According to our guide book, this was all built for the 1929 World Fair, to showcase all that electricity could do (in addition to lighting). This included the funicular, fountain-lined boulevard, plaza, and a few other things. (It was all sponsored by the electric company.)
Apparently it's Oktoberfest in Barcelona, currently. Judging by the fact that I learned about it from this sign in front of a closed beer hall, I'm guessing it isn't a huge success? That might explain why I've been able to get märzen, helles bock, and other German beer styles in restaurants, though. 🤷
We skirted around the edge of the plaza, stopping to admire the former-bullring-now-shopping-mall. Word on the street is that, while the official reason for banning bullfighting in Catalunya is due to the animal cruelty, the real reason might be closer to it being a giant middle finger to the rest of Spain.
There's a metro station under the plaza, so we continued our journey to the airport, after a nearly-two-hour interlude. The usual airport procedure was uneventful, perhaps except in how efficient and painless it was compared to what we're used to in the US.
We even had time to enjoy a few tapas for an afternoon snack, in the outdoor plaza attached to the terminal.
Even the airport food kiosks have freshly-sliced jamón. I did not try it, but we can assume it would have been excellent.
The Barcelona airport is cavernous, bright, and clean. Again: not what we're used to.
Our 6:05 PM flight on Vueling was uneventful. While waiting to board, we were entertained by this guy driving a remote-controlled pushback tractor.
I think the total time in the air was under 45 minutes, to Palma de Mallorca.
I'd had some trouble figuring out exactly how we were going to get to our hotel in the old city center. We'd considered the possibility of renting a scooter (how often do you leave an airport with only a backpack?), but we didn't really have time to tour around the island and were intending to just stay downtown. Additionally, we had no idea what the parking situation would be (hotel parking was a "maybe?", street parking looked to be out of the question, etc.).
It appeared that there was an airport bus (the A1) that went almost directly to the old city center, including a stop about 300 yards from our hotel, so we went with that option.
A bus showing "A1" arrived around the right time and at the right place, according to Google Maps. We paid the 5€ fares and found some seats. Looking back, our best guess is that this particular bus was switching from the A1 route to the A2 route, and we happened to board during the in-between gray area.
Specifically, the bus turned the "wrong" way out of the airport. After the first stop, I went up and asked the driver if we were on the wrong bus, by which I mean I said (in Spanish) something like "hey, we need to go downtown" and he said (in Spanish) "you're on the wrong bus, this one goes to <somewhere else>". He suggested we get off at the next stop and take the... 25? 35? bus to downtown. Not sure what he said, exactly, but we got off at the next stop, found another bus driver, and asked for more info.
Eventually, we found a bus where the driver said "yes" to "are you going to the center?", and got back on track. Without knowing specifically what route our new bus was taking or where we should get off, we instead opted to get off when we saw the Palma Cathedral, and walk from there.
On any other day, this would've been quite impressive, but we'd started the day with a visit to Sagrada Familia. Sorry, Palma Cathedral.
With this in mind, we figured there was no reason to go straight to the hotel; we only had backpacks for the night anyway. There was no need to go drop anything off before dinner, and it was already 8 PM, so we made the obvious decision.
As we'd only planned to spend about 24 hours on the island, we didn't exert a huge amount of effort on research. Some random travel blog I'd turned up suggested Moltabarra, conveniently located very close to the hotel. We made another obvious choice, and got tapas again.
It was around 9:15 PM when we got to the hotel, where we were surprised to discover someone working the front desk. He seemed surprised that we were surprised, but we didn't elaborate.
For a random, last-minute find on hotels.com, we couldn't have asked for more. The centrally-located dual shower did raise an eyebrow or two, however.
I wanted to turn in and get a solid night's sleep, but Sabrina insisted we go out on the town, obviously.
One of the first unusual things we encountered was an improvised trust fall on the sidewalk. I still wonder what the backstory was, there.
This one requires no explanation, which is great because I don't have one to offer.
Palma, too, was in the midst of an Oktoberfest celebration. This sign was the only evidence we saw, of course.
We meandered across old town for the better part of a mile or so. Possibly from the same random travel blog, we ended up at the rooftop bar of Nakar Hotel, which had a lovely view of the city, from the cathedral to the castle on the hill.
An hour or so later, we strolled back towards the hotel, taking a detour down the pedestrian walkway in the middle of one of the main streets (Paseo del Born).
Back at the hotel by 11:30 PM, we admired the "living room" just outside our suite, and then concocted a plan for tomorrow.
We briefly considered taking the historic train to Sollér for a few hours, but we couldn't find a rational plan there, given the train's timetable. Instead, we're going to rent bikes (available in the hotel lobby, conveniently), and invent our own Palma bike tour.
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